Willie Ruff, a professor at the Yale School of Music, is retiring after teaching at the university since 1971. He is 85 years old. Ruff is the founder and director of the Duke Ellington Foundation Program at the university. Professor Ruff learned to play the French horn in the U.S. Army. After finishing his military service, Ruff earned two master’s degrees at Yale. He then he joined Lionel Hampton’s band and soon collaborated with his friend, pianist Dwike Mitchell, to form the Mitchell-Ruff Duo. Ruff is the author of A Call to Assembly: The Autobiography of a Musical Storyteller(Viking Books, 1991).

Darlene Clark Hine, a professor of history and professor of African American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, is retiring. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern University in 2004, Professor Hine taught at Michigan State University for 17 years. Professor Hine is the author or editor of many books including Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Construction of American History (Indiana University Press, 1996). She is a graduate of Roosevelt University in Chicago and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Kent State University in Ohio.

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Professional sports teams have discontinued playing Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” at games due to her recording of songs in the 1930s that contained racist lyrics. Which statement best reflects your view?

I agree that Smith’s version of “God Bless America” should not be played.

Smith’s recordings with racist lyrics should be considered in context of the times.

Abraham Lincoln made racist comments, should we ban the reciting of the Gettysburg Address?